Roleplay 101.

Before I get anymore frustrated, I'm going to type this up. These are guidelines to being a good roleplayer over some tard running about hoping he will be amazing. I'll be adding a Daily tip and lesson as time goes on.

Lesson 1) Your Character and You.

Most people can't seem to grasp at the idea that one is not their character, though a character may be based off of you, it is wise to actually think like your character over the way you feel, in other words if your having a horrible day, your upset with the world, but your character is sunny? Don't let your negativity reflect onto the emotions of a character just because you feel that way. If you can't write happy while upset, take a break and come back to it tommorow.

Another detail some forget is memory, Now this plays a major part. Lets take this piece of writing for example:

"Stop! I'll save you!" said Robby Roleplayer, gripping his staff in hand and rushing into battle "Your the only thing worth saving in this messed up crazy world" the young hero continued gripping the staff and eyeing the woman he was about to save. Little did she know that as he gazed upon her that Robby, deep in side, resented her all along. His master had sent him to kill his only true friend

Now, examining this we must remember that the character of the woman he is playing only realises two bits of information "Stop I'll save you" and "Your the only thing in blah generic call", She isn't aware of Robbys true intentions and due to this she cannot act. Heres two ways to respond;Do:Stephanie Super had a burst of joy as she saw Robby fly over head, her hero, her friend, all was finally well in this world now because of he. She ran up to Robby and threw her hands around his neck holding him in an embrace "I knew you'd come"

Don't:Stephanie saw Robby land, but something was off, this wasn't her same old friend but rather a lost soul. His moves were different and alltogether he appeared an evil man. Stephanie quickly grabbed her dagger "No Robby. I don't think we have time to discuss this"

What Stephanie Super did right in her first post was think of how her character would feel, Her friend had just arrived, she's happy about it and she feels safe. What she did wrong was completely rip off a veil that was impossible to see, Your character can't just see through a person because of "The way they seem". Nor can you decide that the person was "Moving strangely" when there is no indication that they were or choose the tone a phrase is said in, if you wish to figure out that Robby is evil, let your character do it through actions rather than suddenly in the next post go "ARE YOU EVIL!? AR YOU GOING TO KILL ME? WHATS YOUR MIDDLE NAME? ", The 20 questions is a good game to play on a car trip, but not in roleplay.

Now there are exceptions to this rule, if your character has heightened senses occasionally they can hear the beat of a heart and work out if a person is lying or not. A psychic is another example of this, who can read minds and emotions.

This is one of the most frustrating problems with roleplay(especially if your evil), and even some of the elites tend to do it.

Lesson 2) Combat and You Part 1 of 2Forum roleplay is a very open study, victories offered measured in How many energy balls someone threw, sometimes measured in who scored the most hits and on other occasions who's the more powerful character. Because of this, most forum battles end up like this...

The problem with fighting on a forum is that there technically is no definite winner besides the man who backs down or is backed into a corner, In that sense Forum Roleplay is like Chess. A chessplayer must try to find a way to back their opponent into a corner and make sure they are unable to respond, The player must be three steps ahead of the opponent at all times and usually has a strategy to follow. Now obviously if the game was just two humans punching each other and both sides must decide who can take the most would end up being something like this...

But give the queen a laser cannon, the pawns a few knives and the king super sayain transformation and it turns out more like this...

Now in most rp battles there are five points that will always take place and that we will be touching on:

1) Open AttacksAn Open attack is the chips of the roleplay combo-meal, Its always there and makes it just that much more satisfying. An Open attack is an attack that allows the other player to determine whether it hits or not, This gives the opponent an opertunity to dodge the large blast of energy and is essentially like "Swinging a punch" these should be used more than any other type of attack

As an example, I'll be using Robby Roleplay and Stephanie Super;

Do what Robby does: Robby rushed towards Stephanie and swung a hard hit at her face, spinning his body he threw forward a kick and finished off by sending a blast of pure energy towards her torso

Don't do what Stephanie does:Stephanie punched Robby to the face hard, then kicked him to the balls and shot a beam of energy into his torso

See how slight it is and how much of a difference it makes? This is what we call a fairplay rule.

2) God Modding. God Modding is the most vile thing someone can do, God modding is when someone treats an opponent like an NPC character, controlling their every action or being undefeatable. This guy is a huge Godmod:

Robby Roleplay!:Robby took the hit to his face and was sent against the wall, he brushed himself back and charged to Stephanie throwing a kick to her neck

Stephanie Super!:Stephanie recieved the hit but suddenly her face went super hard and Robby's entire body convulsed, she grabbed Robby and proceeded to grab his head and rip it off, Robby was now dead

So last time we touched on the aspects of God modding and Open attacks, now I think its time we learned about some other events that come up constantly in RP so lets move on to our next topic....

Power-Playing!

Now Power play is something that yours truly hates with a firey passion, Power play is the act where one roleplayer either uses more power than they have or controls another players character. Its sort of a sub-section of Godmodding in the fact that it causes the Powerplaying Player to become stronger than they actually are so I'll split this section into two parts, first I'll explain "Defence Powerplay"

Now Defence Powerplay is where one player somehow manages to get out of an unbeatable attack or continues to fight after having been literally beaten to a pulp or even just acts like a total dick and claims to have more powers than they actually do.

Robby Roleplay Says"Robby grabbed his blade, he was damaged and struggling from the last attack and charged forward at the incoming blast, holding it back best he could, his feet struggled, his muscles tensed, but as the secondary wave came in it was to much and Robby was thrown like a ragdoll across the room"

Stephanie Super Says"Stephanie grabbed her staff, she was damaged and struggling from the last attack but span her arm upward and deflected the blast back at Robby Roleplay, The secondary blast came swiftly but Stephanie was to good, flipping above it to avoid it completely"

These moves are usually used when a player gets frustrated with the move of another or cant think of a way out of it and so resorts to thinking of some insane way of dodging a movement or continuing on. These are sometimes let slide (which is infuriating) as they don't actually damage the other player, but overall are still a Taboo in the RP world.

< - Total Defence Power Play

Now for Aggresive Powerplay, Aggresive Power play is hitting or controlling a person, now not as bad as God modding it still damages a person, this can be that somehow the person manages to send a blast of energy through a person, freeze them or even just power their character up.

Its best to stay realistic (as realistic as you can be) with your characters, if they have been shot and maimed its unlikely they'll still be in tip top shape, If they've been engulfed in flame its rare that they'll just "brush it off", The fact is that your hurt and you need to realise this and add it up to your attack, sure you could punch with a broken arm, but this doesn't mean its going to be easy. Perhaps you could even throw that 20 ton guy across the room...If you HAD the power to do so. but the fact of the matter is use Open attacks to "ask to do this" to the opposing character, NPC or not.